During the minority of a baron, while his lands are in wardship, and are not in his own possession, no debt which he owes to the Jews shall bear any interest.  Heirs shall be married without disparagement; and before the marriage be contracted, the nearest relatives of the person shall be informed of it.  A widow, without paying any relief, shall enter upon her dower, the third part of her husband’s rents; she shall not be compelled to marry, so long as she chooses to continue single; she shall only give security never to marry without her lord’s consent.  The king shall not claim the wardship of any minor who holds lands by military tenure of a baron, on pretence that he also holds lands of the crown by socage or any other tenure.  Scutages shall be estimated at the same rate as in the time of Henry I; and no scutage or aid, except in the three general feudal cases—­the king’s captivity, the knighting of his eldest son, and the marrying of his eldest daughter—­shall be imposed but by the great council of the kingdom; the prelates, earls, and great barons shall be called to this great council, each by a particular writ; the lesser barons by a general summons of the sheriff.  The king shall not seize any baron’s land for a debt to the crown if the baron possesses as many goods and chattels as are sufficient to discharge the debt.  No man shall be obliged to perform more service for his fee than he is bound to by his tenure.  No governor or constable of a castle shall oblige any knight to give money for castle guard, if the knight be willing to perform the service in person, or by another able-bodied man; and if the knight be in the field himself, by the king’s command, he shall be exempted from all other service of this nature.  No vassal shall be allowed to sell so much of his land as to incapacitate himself from performing his service to his lord.

These were the principal articles, calculated for the interest of the barons; and had the charter contained nothing further, national happiness and liberty had been very little promoted by it, as it would only have tended to increase the power and independence of an order of men who were already too powerful, and whose yoke might have become more heavy on the people than even that of an absolute monarch.  But the barons, who alone drew and imposed on the prince this memorable charter, were necessitated to insert in it other clauses of a more extensive and more beneficent nature:  they could not expect the concurrence of the people without comprehending, together with their own, the interests of inferior ranks of men; and all provisions which the barons for their own sake were obliged to make in order to insure the free and equitable administration of justice, tended directly to the benefit of the whole community.  The following were the principal clauses of this nature: